


Lead the Way

by Raibean



Category: Marvel
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, Alternate Universe - Race Changes, F/F, Genderswap
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-05-24
Updated: 2013-09-29
Packaged: 2017-12-12 20:21:32
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 9,498
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/815634
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Raibean/pseuds/Raibean
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Toni's as out as a woman can be, but Stephanie would like to keep at least some of her life private. Unfortunately, her Twitter addiction is getting in the way.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Introducing Toni Stark and Stephanie Chen

**Author's Note:**

> I know gender-swapped Tony's name is supposed to be Natasha Stark, but since we already have a Natasha, I figured that would be too hard to follow. Some families actually do the shared-name tradition, so I thought it was a nice way to write that in.

Steph

She used to be able to pass for a boy, no curves and just tall enough to be a short man. She did it frequently to try and enlist; she’d grown up on stories of girls and women becoming soldiers. Once in a while, they served openly as women, but that was usually because they were nurses who happened to pick up a gun. When the army picked up her services, it was as a woman. She was chosen to become a part of a newsreel campaign for patriotism: Young women from around the country were going to be filmed taking part in armed forces training and activities; this film would be played before movies to excite women into becoming much-needed manufacturing workers and to shame men into enlisting. Supposedly. But they actually learned things, and Stevie liked the other girls. A lot of them were doing all of this on top of building planes or teaching or nursing. Like soldiers, a lot of them were sending money back home.

It wasn’t enough, though. Stevie would go back to Brooklyn, and her neighborhood would be empty. It wasn’t just the boys that were gone, like in the white neighborhoods; whole families had been evacuated, their property taken and sold. That was the first time Stevie realized that the bullies weren’t just overseas. Yeah, she’d met a lot in Brooklyn, but it hadn’t hit her that anyone could be a bully. It just depended on who the victim was. Stevie wasn’t Japanese (she was Taiwanese), but she got stopped on the streets often enough. It was humiliating.

A combination of luck, lying, and hard work got her into the Super Soldier program. The luck was hers; the hard work was Dr. Erskine’s; the lying was Agent Carter’s. There were two other girls in the Super Soldier program, and neither of them was built like Stevie. There were some leaner soldiers in the group, to be sure, but none of them were as pathetically debile as her. She knew it was pissing Agent Carter off; everything Stevie did wrong reflected on her. Not because Agent Carter helped keep her in the program but because they were both women. People could always point to Peggy as the exception and Stevie as the rule. Bullies always found a way to justify their actions.

Stevie tried harder; she really did, and she was absolutely amazed when she was picked. All of her hopes were shattered with Dr. Erskine’s death. She took the chorus girl job because it was better than staying in the lab. It wasn’t too different from what she’d been doing before, honestly. The biggest difference was the whitewashing, how they lightened her skin for the camera and even gave her a new last name (Rogers, her real last name is Chen). Soon they upgrade her to movies and bubble gum wrappers and comics. Once in a bar, she even hears that pilots are painting her on their planes. She blushes when she hears it, because she’d never thought of herself as a pin-up girl.

It takes more luck, lying, and hard work to get her to be an actual soldier. The luck is hers, but this time, so is the hard work. She splits the lying with Peggy. She’s the only woman they’ll put on the front lines, making jokes about super soldier serum behind closed doors. Stephanie Chen doesn’t care. She’d legally change her name to Rogers if they let her keep doing it. At least, she felt that way before Bucky died. Before she died, and brought everyone else with her only to wake up at the last second. She was willing to give her life to save countless others, but sometimes dying is easier than living.

Toni

Natasha Antonia Stark has never cared if people called her Iron Man or Iron Woman. Honestly, there was some confusion at first because the suit is pretty sexless, and “sexless” might as well be shorthand for “male”. Some more conservative news reporters even suggested she put cleavage in the armor, like she was going to give the armor a weak spot on purpose. People knew who Iron Man was before people knew that Iron Man was Toni Stark (billionaire, genius, lesbian Latina extraordinaire – all of which is listed on her business cards, along with “superhero”). The first time JARVIS told her about the Iron Man reports, all she could think to say was, “If they think that’s amazing, they should see what I can do with my tongue.” It never occurs to her that Iron Man might be the one thing to earn her father’s approval. All he would ever talk about was Captain America, and when she was younger, Toni almost thought that he’d been in love with her.

She’d asked her mother about it once, and to her grave, Toni will always believe that she was her most audacious that autumn night.

To Toni’s relief, her mother shakes her head. “Captain America, to your father, is not just an old friend. She represents everything he had back then; all the friends he lost and the dreams he left behind. She is his legacy.”

Toni has never been sure if she was relieved or disappointed upon hearing her mother’s answer. Toni’s almost sick with nervousness when she’s about to meet Stephanie Chen, though. They fight together, then they argue, but in the suit, Toni is strangely calm. Iron Man isn’t just a physical armor; it’s an emotional one, too. Not that she needs any more.

After the invasion, there’s a formal team introduction.

“You’ve seen each other in action, so I don’t think I need to brief you all on what you do,” Nick Fury says, “but we still need a first meeting and a nice round of paperwork to finalize your positions on the team.”

Bruce and Stephanie nod. Toni’s already itching to pull out her phone and start designing new improvements for the Iron Man. Out of respect for her new teammates, she leaves it alone.

“Bruce Banner,” Fury says, handing him a file. The stack of paperwork is surprisingly short. Toni doesn’t hold back a smirk at the fact that SHIELD’s still using hard copies as their primary records. “Clint Barton.” Barton’s paperwork is smaller than Banner’s; he was already with SHIELD, so that isn’t too suprising. “Stephanie Chen.”

“I thought your last name was Rogers,” Clint says as Captain America takes her files. She has seven, and Toni quickly concludes that they’re files on the team members.

“They thought it sounded more American,” Stephanie explains. “They also had me wear a blonde wig in the later movies.”

“You’d look good blonde,” Clint says. His tone is conversational, not flirty.

“Thank you.”

“Thor Odinson,” Fury continues, ignoring Barton and Chen. Thor has probably the most things to sign. Toni isn’t expecting much more than Chen, who wasn’t a SHIELD agent but had been living at HQ for a while.

“Natasha Romanova.” Fury turns to Toni. “Natasha Antonia Stark.”

“Just Antonia,” Toni corrects. “Natasha’s a family name. My mother was Natasha Maria; my grandmother was Natasha Belinda, and all her sisters were Natasha, too.”

“That’s weird,” Clint says. Natasha – the Russian one, not Toni – arches an eyebrow in consent, but she already knew all of this. She organized Toni’s file.

“I don’t think so,” Stephanie answers. “My family called me by my middle name until I was ten.”

“What’s your middle name?” Banner asks.

“Bong-chhi,” Stephanie mutters.

Natasha snorts but says nothing. Thor also laughs.

“What does that mean?” It’s Clint.

“Um...” Stephanie blushes. “It means ‘no takers’.”

“Wait,” Toni asks. “Like, romantically speaking?”

Stephanie nods, and she looks less like Captain America and more like an embarrassed middle schooler.

“It’s a Taiwanese tradition thing,” she explains. “To ward off bad spirits, you give your kid a shitty name. Before the Great War, I had an uncle who was renamed ‘Pig Shit’ when he got sick. We were poor, so I got stuck with Bong-chhi.”

“Does that mean you were critically unlucky in love before you were even ten?” Toni asks. She doesn’t even think about how a few seconds ago, this woman was doing Toni a favor.

“I guess I was.” Her voice is steady, but Stephenie’s gaze has shifted to the files in her hands.

****

Stevie

Natasha is the one who explains Twitter, but Clint ends up setting one up for her. “Captain America” is already taken, along with many other variations, so she decides to go with “CaptainRogers”. She even registers her name as Stevie Rogers because Clint says it will be easier to find her. He’s right: Within an hour, she has half a million followers.

CaptainRogers: Hello, Twitter!

That gets a thousand responses alone.

“Is there anything else I can use Twitter for, besides talking about what I’m doing?” Stevie asks.

“Well, you can always ask them to explain things,” Clint says. “I mean, there’s Wikipedia and Google, not to mention the library, YouTube, and Netflix to give you access to stuff. But you can ask your followers stuff, too.”

For the most part, Stevie only uses Twitter to answer questions, address rumors, and keep tabs on her teammates. Thor tends to tweet about Midgardian foods. Bruce tweets about news in science and philosophy. Natasha seems to be a fighting nut, constantly tweeting about wrestling matches, karate competitions, and kung fu tournaments. Clint mostly tweets about unsigned artists and DJs, most of whom did dubstep. Toni does something called “gay bar Fridays” in which she invites all the women-who-love-or-fuck-women in New York to whatever bar Toni wants to go to. Once a month, someplace even invites her. When Stephanie asks why Toni isn’t invited places more, Toni explains that the collateral damage occasionally offset the costs. Natasha explains that “occasionally” actually means “every other week”.

One week, Toni invites her to come along.

“It’s not a lesbian bar,” Toni says. “I almost never go to lesbian bars for these things; that’s predictable and boring. Anyway, we can go, get smashed, then finish up with some late-night fondue.” Toni finishes by taking a bite of salad and a flirty arch of her eyebrows.

Stephanie gives Toni a long, hard look. It only takes a few seconds for Stark to ‘fess up.

“My dad told me that story.”

Stephanie blushes and crosses her arms. “You use euphemisms all the time! Is it really that far-fetched to think that someone would offer fondue in France to... get laid?”

They laugh for a moment, but then shock sets in.

“Wait,” Stephanie begins, “does that mean your father told you about... me?”

Toni hesitates. “Just once. When I came out. Well, sort of. I was at a boarding school, and I got caught in a, uh, compromising position with another female student. It would have been fine, except we weren’t in our rooms; we were in the library. They had to replace half of their classics.”

“You got in trouble for kissing?”

“We were way past kissing.” Toni takes a deep breath. “Anyway, they called my parents, and I was scared shitless. When I was a teenager, I was never scared of my parents, just angry at them. Except this one time. I hadn’t told them I liked women yet, and I was really scared of what would happen. So my dad told me about you. That was nothing new, you know; Dad never shut up about you. But I guess that was the one time he actually sat down with me to say everything was alright. The rest of the time, that was Mom’s job.”

“Do you mind...” Stephanie coughs. “Please don’t tell anyone. I’m just not ready to tell people about it. About Peggy and all of that.”

“It’s none of my business,” Toni says. “But if you want to come tonight without the press speculating, we can invite the rest of the team.”

Stevie smiles. “I’d like that.”

Everyone’s down for a good party; it’s been a long week of photoshoots and interviews. This is one of the invites, so Toni calls ahead to say that the whole Avengers team will be coming. The Bastion, where they were going, told her that they would be serving specialized drinks named after each of them.

Toni, Thor, and Clint swear they’ll try them all. Stevie promises to take care of Thor. Natasha has unspoken dibs on Clint, and Toni can always count on her pet Hulk to take care of her. Not that she needs it; Stevie sees her leave with at least one woman. It looks like a group, but Stevie can’t believe that many women were snagged by Toni’s charm. Not all at once, anyway. Stevie just orders another Black Widow (Diet Coke, cranberry juice, and vodka) and looks around for Thor. He seems to be having a dance competition with Clint.

Stevie smiles. Her friends are scattered around the room, doing their own things, but she doesn’t feel alone at all. She missed feeling like this.

 


	2. Lessons in the Future with a side of Fondue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They wake up at the same time.

Toni

At first it was weird, having anyone (let alone Captain America) wake up at the same time as her. Among her Stark Industries coworkers, Toni’s a bit notorious for waking up at 6 AM, in sickness or in health for richer or for poorer (but mostly richer and richest). Toni loves to get to her workshop so early. It’s not the peace and quiet of the house that drives her there; she’s had that for decades. It’s the peace and quiet of the city. Not just New York; she found it in Malibu, too. She could draw up schematics in the living room while the sun rose and the first surfers came to a newly ocean-scrubbed beach. That wasn’t why she’d started getting up so early. The real reason was because she couldn’t stay away. She stays in her lab hours after everyone else has gone to bed, and even when she convinces her body to rest, she dreams about switching wiring and twisting wrenches and the smell of grease and electricity.

Steph gets up early, too. She goes to the gym downstairs, barefoot in a wifebeater and sweatpant cut-offs.

Toni gets used to seeing her in the kitchen. Stephanie only ever eats scrambled eggs and toast and an orange for breakfast, sometimes with milk, sometimes with juice. Toni tends to go for last night’s leftovers. It’s not that Toni can’t cook; she makes a mean omelet. She just doesn’t want to bother. It would take too long; she can hear the metal calling her floors away.

She doesn’t take breaks. Contrary to what Clint and Bruce seem to think, Toni knows when she’s hungry, thirsty, or tired. The reason she doesn’t stop is because she doesn’t want to. She tells herself, I’ll get to it once this part is finished except when that part is finished, she gets excited about the next part, and it keeps going until she forgets that she’s hungry or thirsty or tired. It goes too far one week when she starts wearing the Iron Man bottoms just so she doesn’t have to leave her workshop to piss. That’s where her teammates draw the line.

Bruce lures her out by saying some equipment in his lab is broken. He ends up steering her into the rec room, where Clint is busy putting up a banner that says “You Need to Stop” in big red letters. He probably painted it himself.

Toni looks around then turns around. Bruce stops her from leaving. She goes with it partly because he looks legitimately worried and partly because she doesn’t want him to Hulk out next to the foosball table.

“Okay, what is it?”

“Really, Toni? You really don’t know?” Natasha asks. “I mean, shit, you’re wearing half of the Iron Man suit right now.”

Toni just stares at her.

That was when Stephanie steps forward. “Toni, I understand that it’s a good thing to, uh, be prepared in the event of an attack, but you need to take the suit off.”

“You guys have no idea how annoying it is to be working on a particle accelerator that I can carry around in my pocket only to have to drop one.”

“Antonia, we have all been in situations in which it is inconvenient to relieve oneself,” Thor says, ignoring the winces and looks of disgust the others were giving Toni, “but we choose to restrain ourselves or travel to the lavatories.”

“Seriously, are you guys having Thor lecture me on how to act? This is the guy who, when we took him volunteering at a soup kitchen, started yelling at some of the volunteers.”

“Captain Stephanie has assured me that my heart was in the right place!”

“They were Girl Scouts, and you made them cry.”

Natasha smirks. “Do you want me to bring up how you were busy hitting on their troop leader?”

“Totally not the point, unless this is an intervention for your guys’ collective dry spell.”

Clint lifts an eyebrow.

Natasha coughs. “Toni, this comes from one Natasha to another: Go to the bathroom like a big girl. If you really don’t want to leave your workshop that badly, we’ll buy you adult diapers.”

“Uggggggghhhhhh. Okay.”

“That’s it?” Clint asks. “I mean, I went through all the trouble of making this banner, and that’s all it takes?”

Toni pats him on the back. “I’m sure we’ll use it again when we finally get sick of Steph’s swing music.”

“I kind of like the swing music,” Bruce says quietly.

“Thank you, Bruce.”

****

“It would be really helpful if you guys could help me catch up on seven decades of history,” Stephanie says one night. Bruce made them curry, and Toni’s surprised at how good it is.

“Just use Wikipedia,” Toni says through a mouthful of naan.

“It’s not structured enough,” Stephanie insists. “I don’t know where to start.”

“We could each take a decade, except for Thor,” Natasha suggests. “Then we could share the 90s and the 2000s.”

“Thanks, Nat.”

“You’re welcome, Steph. I’ll take the 50s.”

“Dibs on the 80s,” Clint says.

“Fine, fine, I’ll take the 60s,” Toni agrees. “That’s gonna be hilarious.”

“70s, then,” Bruce says.

“When do we start?” Stephanie asks.

Toni smiles; she’s already planning out how best to prank their resident captain. She’ll tell her the truth, of course. Just not right away.

****

Stephanie

“What’s that?” Steph asks.

Natasha’s come onto her floor of the Avengers Tower with a bag of groceries and a box.

“It’s a fondue set,” Nat explains. “Toni said you’d like some. I’m not too fond of melted cheese, though, so I got chocolate instead. You don’t mind, do you?”

Stephanie holds back a laugh. “No, that’s fine!”

“I know you have a hot plate; where is it?”

“Somewhere in the kitchenette. I haven’t really used it.”

Natasha’s short hair is up in a ponytail; short soft hairs curl at the hairline on her neck. In her downtime, Nat prefers jeans, flip flops, and band tees. She was also a fan of oversized belt buckles.

“So I brought over some movies and some music. I know you have a record player, so I actually got some of those.”

“Thank you.” Steph smiles. “I don’t think many of our teammates will indulge my, uh, nostalgia.”

“If you like them, you can keep them. If not, we can sell them to some hipsters on eBay. We can even have the team sign them or something.”

“Cool. Tell me about the political stuff while we’re working on the fondue.”

Natasha smiles. “Well, the 1950s marked the beginning of the Cold War. This was also one of the high points of the US as a world superpower. America was working on the hydrogen bomb as well as constantly testing the atom bomb. People started stealing the science left and right, including the USSR.”

“I wish we’d never got that technology.”

“Yeah, well blame Stark – Howard, not Antonia. He was working on the Manhattan Project after you went missing.”

Stephanie knows that she’s not responsible for other people’s decisions, but she can’t help but feel like that wouldn’t have happened if she’d been around. She wants to think that Howard wouldn’t have done such a thing or think it was just once, but Toni’s whole career was built off of his legacy as a weapons engineer.

“What else happened?”

“There was the Red Scare. This senator named McCarthy was hounding everyone about communism. A huge amount of people got fired. On top of that, because people thought they were more likely to be blackmailed, queers were getting fired left and right.”

“Is it okay to use that word? It’s mostly an insult, isn’t it?” Stephanie asks.

“The meaning’s changed a bit,” Natasha explains. “It still means gay, but it means more than gay, too. It means multisexuals and trans* people and everyone who’s not heterosexual, heteroromantic, and cisgender. It’s definitely used as an insult, but there are people who use it to describe themselves. Like me.”

“You’re... queer?”

“I’m aromantic. And asexual. I like sex, I’m just not sexually attracted to anyone.”

“I... can I ask about Clint?” Stephanie starts. “I’m not doubting you; I just wanted to know about your relationship, if that’s okay.”

“It’s fine.” Natasha stirs the chocolate in the top pan. “We’ve been partners for years. Sometimes we date other people. We’re somewhere between dating and best friends. We just call it queerplatonic. We trust each other more than anything. If either of us were the marrying type, we would have gotten it over with already.”

“Oh. That’s... a lot of new stuff to swallow.”

“Yeah, I get that.”

Stephanie didn’t like the idea of using “queer” for herself, but she could understand why other people wanted to.

They didn’t get to have fondue; Natasha overcooked the chocolate. The ended up picking at it with spoons, and Stephanie thought it was the best chocolate she’d had in a while. They watched Singin’ in the Rain and 12 Angry Men. The listened to Elvis (who Steph thought was okay) and Ray Charles (who isn’t Stephanie’s usual listening type, but she likes him nonetheless). They wake up on the couch, cuddling because Natasha is “a huge cuddle-monster” (her words, not Stephanie’s).

Stephanie wakes up at her usual time, and it only takes a little prodding for Natasha to get up. Stephanie’s still a bit late to the kitchen, where Toni is (there’s no other word) waiting for her.

“How was your girls’ night?” she asks. She has a playful smile on.

“Good.” Stephanie smiles back and pulls some eggs out of the fridge.

“Did you two... fondue?”

Stephanie laughs about it again. “We tried, but Nat overcooked the chocolate.”

“I’ll have to get you real fondue. Are you guys done with the 50s?”

“Pretty much. I’ll be checking out more stuff in my free time.”

Toni grabs an apple. “Do you want to schedule our 60s day?”

“Sure. Does next Thursday sound good? We have that charity auction planning on Friday.”

“Perfect,” Toni tells her.

****

Even though she didn’t come out to Natasha, things are easier between them. They weren’t distant, before – well, not any more distant than Natasha usually was. There was a lot of trust; they’d both been with SHIELD, and they knew enough about each other for their actions to be fairly predictable. That was them as teammates. Now they’re more than that. Stephanie really hopes that she’ll be that much closer to the rest of her teammates when they’ve done this together.

She’s looking forward to Thursday, too. It’s nice to have someone know she likes women. She’s still not ready to tell anyone, but there’s less pressure to keep the secret now that Toni knows. On top of that, Toni likes women, too. Well, Toni only likes women, but that doesn’t make a difference to Stephanie.

Rather than meet on Stephanie’s floor, they were going to talk on Toni’s floor. Surprisingly, it’s clean. Toni has a large home theater set up in the living room. The furniture is fairly minimal, instead showing off a great view of the streets.

Stephanie turns to see Atonia in the kitchen.

“I made us some real fondue and a couple of Iron Mans,” she says. “I got the recipe from The Bastion.”

“I won’t even get buzzed.”

“Yeah, but it tastes good.” Toni passes her a drink. “You really didn’t try them?”

“I can’t remember.”

“Well, then.”

“What’s in this?”

“Strawberry liqueur, lemonade, and rum, all topped off with a jasmine flower or white umbrella for my repulsors. I decided not to skip the flower; I love jasmine. There’s tons of it in California.”

Stephanie sips her drink. She was more of a beer girl, but it wasn’t bad. “Do you miss Malibu?”

Toni nods. “I miss the sunshine. Snow is great, but it’s easier to not really worry about seasons. Except for wildfire season every August to October.” She pauses. “Are you scared of ice and snow since you woke up and all?”

Stephanie shakes her head. “I thought I was going to die. I’m kind of glad I didn’t, even if it’s hard. But I don’t blame the ice.”

“It’s the super-serum. I saw the science. You can survive just about anything.”

“Good to know.”

“The fondue’s ready! Grab a stick.”

They spend the night dancing to The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. Toni tells Stephanie that she doesn’t like either of them (unless she’s in a sappy mood or she’s sick), but they’re “old as balls and deserve respect”. She winks at Steph when she says it, and Steph insists that she is 26, not old as dirt.

“I hear dirt’s only 21, so...”

That joke is probably older than Toni, but Stephanie hasn’t heard it before. She practically chokes from laughing so hard, and there’s Toni’s trademark smile. She doesn’t see the real one often, but it’s been photographed enough. The 60s, Stephanie finds, are totally worth it.

 


	3. The Prank War

Toni

So maybe Toni went a bit overboard when she convinced Stephanie – Captain America, missing nearly a century of history and gullible to the point that Toni was sure she was faking – that hippies aka the flower children were actually the result of government experiments that drove them crazy and made them refuse to eat meat. And maybe she should have stopped before telling Stephanie that most vegetarians were descendants of said flower children. Well, now she’s paying for it.

“Oh, it is _on_ , Rogers,” she says as she looks at her bedroom.

All the tech is gone, replaced by 1940s counterparts (if one existed) or empty space (if one didn’t). Toni is half sure she’s looking at it through a sepia filter. She checks her closet. All her men’s suits (altered to fit her frame) have been replaced by blouses and skirts.

“JARVIS?” she calls. Of course Stephanie can’t replace JARVIS. He’s everywhere.

“Yes, Ms. Stark?”

“Can you schedule a photoshoot in, I don’t know, Paris for Steph? With Vogue. They’ve been hounding her long enough. Try for a, um... Hm. A Paris during the war and a Paris now comparison. She’ll love that.”

“Anything else, Ms. Stark?”

“Can you order a moon bounce and 50,000 balloons?”

“Of course, Ms. Stark.”

“And enough helium tanks to service them. Also a moving crew. Thanks, JARVIS.”

 

She almost wants to let the rest of the team in on it. She could have Coulson chalk it up as a “team-building experience”, which would be great because those are annoying and mandatory and ugh someone shoot her. She doesn’t tell them because this is between her and Steph, and she likes it that way.

All of her stuff was just in a different room, not thrown out or anything, but Toni’s too lazy to move it back, so she ends up having a new bedroom. Her suits are untouched, which is great. She loves those things. She doesn’t talk to Steph about the prank or her reaction, but then, Steph hasn’t told Toni about what happened when she found out what really happened with the hippies.

Stephanie’s really excited to see Paris again, and Natasha goes with her as a translator. Black Widow ends up having her own photoshoot with Vogue, to be used the month after Stephanie’s. Toni’s French is amazing; she could have gone, and hey, it’s been a while since she’s been to Paris... but this prank is going to be epic. She asks JARVIS to record Stephanie’s reaction. First, she gets the moving crew to empty Steph’s room and the hallways. They only move the things into some of the empty rooms on Stephanie’s floor, but it only takes two hours, and Toni has papers to sign. Pepper really will kill Toni if she doesn’t get those done by Wednesday.

Next, since the papers are done, Toni has the company come in and set up the moon bounce. Generally, you’re not supposed to have those indoors, but who gives a shit? That only takes twenty minutes, then the rest of the hour to inflate the bastard. Toni works on some new straws that filter water. The plan is that for every one a consumer buys, one is sent to a developing village. Clean water rocks, and good press isn’t that hard to generate.

Lastly, Toni uses helium to inflate the balloons. Each time one floats to the ceiling, she feels satisfaction and anticipation. _This is going to be great._ At least for the first two hours. After that, it feels like a chore, and she blames Stephanie for officially creating a prank war. She totally should have invited everyone else to help because filling up balloon after balloon is boring. She’s so mad that she fills a couple with water and lets them roll around on the ground. She accidentally steps on one, popping it, and bangs her head on the wall trying to catch herself. She doesn’t do any more after that.

After the fourth hour of filling balloons, Toni is halfway down the hall. She’s a bit drunk, and once again, she thinks this is the funniest thing to happen since Hammer burned himself trying to use a knife that toasts bread as you slice it. She decides to fill a couple of balloons with glitter, which means an afternoon hunting for glitter. She buys five pounds. She glues some to the outside of balloons just because they’re pretty. She wishes she had string, but she really doesn’t want to go back outside. She loses her sunglasses and her scotch somewhere along the way.

At some point, she starts breathing in the helium from balloons, and that makes her laugh uncontrollably, but it carries her through the rest of it. She can’t stop laughing on the elevator to her own floor, and she doesn’t make it back to her lab. She just plops down in her old bedroom (the one that’s still pranked-out) and falls asleep. She forgets to eat dinner.

She wakes up because her stomach is growling. She heads to her kitchen and manages a bowl of cereal. She has a mild hangover, nothing she isn’t used to. Toni almost heads back to her lab to finish working on those damn straws when she checks the time. Natalia and Stephanie have been back for a couple of hours now. She can watch the reaction videos later; for now, she wants to see the woman herself.

The minute she steps off the elevator, Toni can hear laughter and shrieking. She knows what’s happening, and she rushes through (fairly deflated) balloons to Steph’s room. There’s the rest of the team, rolling and hopping and dodging around each other. Of course Steph had never been in a bouncy castle. Of course she would think it was the best thing ever. And of course she would invite the rest of the team, except for Toni who would have slept through the invitation.

_Shit_ , Toni thinks. She isn’t sure if she regrets this prank or is even happier about it.

“Toni!” Stephanie yells. “Toni, jump in!”

Natasha is smiling. Clint lets out a whoop and flips over her.

Toni scrambles up the entrance. She kicks her shoes off (they were still on from yesterday). She does a backflip and almost breaks Thor’s nose. He only laughs.

“I am very fond of this Midgardian pastime!” he shouts. “On what occasions do you celebrate with the inflatable contraption?”

“Birthdays,” Bruce answers. “Though mostly for kids.”

“I haven’t even seen one of these in years,” Natasha says. “And I didn’t get to use it because I was undercover.”

“I remember that!” Clint replies. “We had to get you a kid to break this drug cartel run by middle class mothers in Canada.”

“I still never want to see Valium again.” She does a cartwheel, using a kneeling Stephanie as a pommel horse.

“Please don’t kick me in the face,” Toni asks. She doesn’t have time to wonder why a Valium drug cartel was worth SHIELD’s time because Natasha kicks Toni’s ankle. Bruce catches her. “How were your shoots, ladies?”

“Lovely!” Steph says. She jumps, then flops onto her back. “Paris is beautiful.”

“Kiss anyone?”

“I did,” Natalia answers.

“Oh, you’re mean,” Clint tells her. “I’m going to go upstairs and cry along to Bad Romance.” He kicks her playfully, and she gives him a “Do You Really Want to Do That?” look.

“I don’t think I’ll be kissing anyone in Paris anytime soon,” Stephanie says.

“I should take you guys to Disneyland Paris,” Toni announces. “Why didn’t I think of that earlier?”

“What’s Disneyland?”

“Oh, man.” That’s Clint.

 

Stephanie

“Stephanie, my friend, I am glad we are having this ‘Girls’ Night Out’, as Antonia called it,” Thor tells her. “Toni has explained to me that there will be braiding and something called ‘nail polish’?”

“I’m pretty sure she was joking, Thor. Toni makes a lot of jokes about you being a girl.”

“Is this because my brother, in his female form, once tried to seduce her? She has made several inquiries as to whether I can do the same.”

“What?” Steph shakes her head. “No, I think it’s because of your hair or something. Midgardian men don’t usually have it this long. Unless they’re rock stars, I think. But she makes a lot of jokes about you being one of those, too.”

“I do not understand most of her references.”

“You and me both. But Toni did promise to take us to Disneyland, and I have a lot of Disney to catch up on, so we’re having a movie night.” Stephanie picks up _Mulan_. “Toni said we would like this one!”

It turns out that Thor likes to talk – mostly yell – during movies.

“Why is this dragon sentencing her to dishonor? It is obvious that Mulan has much honor!”

“We’ll see how it plays out.” _Disney has changed a lot since my day._ There were 10 Disney princesses, now, and Stephanie had only gotten to see one of them (Snow White). Cinderella and Aurora didn’t come along until the 50s.

Toni was right; they _do_ like Mulan. Stephanie likes Mulan, of course, but Thor’s favorite is a bit of a surprise. (“This grandmother is very funny! I should like to meet more like her!”) They watch another one; Cinderella, this time. Thor doesn’t like it as much; he says he doesn’t understand the villains’ motives. Stephanie tries to explain it to him, but he just ends up confused as to why there isn’t more socialism in Midgard. Stephanie likes the songs; they’re closer to her own time.

The next day, she finds herself humming “A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes” as she stretches. She’s set to spar with Clint today. The whole team tries to alternate so everyone spars everyone else at least once a week, with the weekends for rest, but Steph doesn’t rest. Weekends, she likes to fight with Thor and Natasha.

“So Steph, how was your date with Thor?”

“It wasn’t a date.” She steps into the ring. If Clint’s making banter, then he’s ready to go. “Got any other gossip?”

“Anything you want to know about in particular?”

“Loki, I guess,” Stephanie says, jabbing at Clint’s shoulder. “Did you know he could turn into a woman?”

“Depends on how you define ‘woman’, but yeah, he can take on a more traditionally female form.”

“Is it true that he tried to seduce Toni?”

“Jealous?” Clint asks with a leer. Steph’s nervous for a second, but he’s just joking. There’s no way he knows that she’s multisexual. Clint’s a good friend and a great teammate, but Stephanie isn’t ready to talk about that yet.

“It’s just surprising. I don’t get it. Why would he go after her?”

“I hear she’s a good lay. Though Toni’s fairly notorious for bending the conventional definition of the word ‘lesbian’.”

“Yeah, but Loki wouldn’t go after her just for that. He had to have a plan.”

Clint shrugged, and tried to trip Steph. She jumped over his legs. “Toni’s a genius. She can take care of herself. Even when naked.”

“Do you think they actually...”

“Okay, _that’s_ none of my business. Though I wouldn’t be surprised. It’d be like a game of chicken: Neither would want to back down, so it wouldn’t stop.”

“Sounds like an interesting game of chicken to me.”

“You know,” Clint says, going for her abdomen, “there actually is a game like that. It’s called ‘Are You Nervous Yet?’ It’s basically for middle schoolers, and the point is to make the other person flinch.”

“It sounds like borderline sexual harassment.”

“Definitely a sticky issue.” When Stephanie doesn’t laugh, he repeats himself. She gets it the second time.

“That’s gross, Clint! We’re talking about children.”

“Yeah, well, some of them are getting pregnant. What are you up to this week?”

“Oh, I have to prank Toni back for the moon bounce. Did you know she wears men’s clothes?”

“Yeah. Because all the buttons and zippers are reversed from women’s.”

“Why?”

“Something about easy access? She has it all tailored to her anyway.”

“But...” Stephanie lets it go. She’ll never understand Toni. “Well, I have to think of a good counter-prank.”

“Need any help?”

“Maybe. I want to think up something on my own, though.”

“Hey, have you tried that Captain America drink?” Clint asks as he dodges a kick. “Vodka, strawberry mixers, and blue cotton candy.”

“Okay, that is definitely not what I’d drink if I wanted alcohol.”

“Nat loves it. She likes drinks like that.”

“Good for her.” Clint fails to dodge in time, and Stephanie clocks him.

 

Toni

Toni walks into her lab. Puts the music on. Instead of the AC/DC she ordered, some Japanese electropop comes on.

_This isn’t over, Steph._

 

 


	4. Sandcastles and Twitter

**Stephanie**

The Vogue gets delivered, and Stephanie’s on the front page. It’s Clint’s turn to get the mail, so he brings it to her. He whistles as he sets it down, and Steph smiles at him.

“Thanks.”

Toni snatches it. “Let me see that.” She flips to Stephanie’s shoot and scans it. “Ew, they said you were ‘the color of a frappuccino’.”

“What’s that?”

“It’s pretend coffee. Has anyone taken you to Starbucks?”

“No. But what’s weird about that?”

Toni grimaces. “They’re comparing you to food. It’s gross. They used to do the same thing to me. It took me forever to just get the press to call me ‘brown’.”

“You’re darker than me.”

Toni shrugs. “Not by much. I was just tired of them saying I was ‘the color of hot chocolate’. Seriously, they started giving me hot chocolate in all of my pictures; it was starting to get weird.”

“Is it true you posed for Playboy, but your company backed out on the pictures?” Natasha asks.

“I had an appointment, but Pepper canceled on me. She then proceeded to threaten to disembowel me with her stilettos.”

“What is Playboy?” Thor asks. “I am assuming it is another photo publication.”

“It’s a magazine where girls take their clothes off.”

“You were going to do that in front of America?” Stephanie shrieks. She’s so embarrassed that she isn’t sure if she’ll ever stop blushing. “Toni, that’s a private thing!”

“My body is as private as I want it to be,” Toni sneers. “Just ask Twitter.”

“Toni,” Bruce calls. He’s in the hallway. “I need your help with –”

“Okay!” Toni puts down Stephanie’s magazine, picks up an orange from the fruit bowl, and follows him.

Steph isn’t stupid. She knows Toni was joking about Twitter. But she’s curious – who’s right? She knows her morals are a bit outdated, but if Pepper didn’t want Toni to bare all, then it couldn’t be just Stephanie who felt that way.

CaptainRogers: Are bodies as private as their owners wish them to be? This means they can be as public as they like, too.

A lot of people respond saying everyone should “cover themselves decently” (as Wintrrrrscumin puts it) in public. S4vemedoct0r confesses to taking their pants off when nobody else is home. A couple of nice-sounding people (mostly women) send links to blog posts talking about female nudity and “the male gaze”. Steph is hooked. Forget pop culture, this is the stuff she wanted to be learning. This is what tells her how people have changed. The more she reads, the more she thinks that people haven’t changed. The things that have are glaringly obvious, and the things that haven’t are things that were never pointed out to her.

Then they go to the beach. Toni, of course, has ordered them all swimsuits that resemble their costumes (“They’re powersuits!” Toni insists) so that they can be recognized swimming. Steph doesn’t really want it. It looks nice, and Toni has been nice enough to style it after bathing suits from the 40s, but Steph doesn’t want to be recognized everywhere. She takes it because she doesn’t want to be rude and because she doesn’t have another swimsuit. All the ones at Wal-mart look like they might as well be underwear – revealing underwear, at that.

Toni’s bikini is, surprisingly, less revealing that Natasha’s. It’s red with gold trimming and a sheer triangle to go over her arc reactor. The bottoms start below her navel and end above her knees. The top comes up to her chin.

Actually, her neck looks really good like that... Stephanie thinks. I wish my neck were that pretty.

Thor has decided to wear his cape to the beach. Everyone forbade him from bringing Mjolnir, however. To cheer him up, they had to bring 5 bags of Cheetos. He munches on them the whole way there, and by the time they hit the sand, his stomach is orange from wiping off his hands so much.

“Hey, Thor, wanna be my wingman?” Toni asks with a snicker.

“I would be happy to fly you anywhere, Natasha Antonia, but I do not have Mjolnir to assist me in flight.”

“I meant... Ah, screw it. Clint? You should know your way around a lady. Nat hasn’t killed you yet or anything.”

“Did you ask me if you could borrow him?” the other Natasha responds. She’s driving.

“May I borrow your sort-of-maybe boyfriend?”

“No. Next time, ask first.” She pulls her sunglasses down from her hair and onto her eyes.

“Bruce? I bet chicks dig that whole rage monster thing. I know I do.”

Bruce sighs. “Toni, we both know you’re not into me like that.”

“Well, I know, but I am just saying –”

“Toni.”

“– we all know you’ve got swag.”

What’s swag? Stephanie mouths to Natasha, who is busy muttering “Is she serious? ‘Swag’? What is she, twelve?”

“I don’t want to spend all day watching you make out with other women, Antonia.”

“You’re just no fun. See if I make you anymore flaming green Jell-o shots.”

“Actually,” Stephanie speaks up, “we’d all like you to stop that. It was really awkward to watch you lick Thor’s neck and then explain to yourself how you thought you were doing tequila body shots.”

“And stop telling Thor that everything’s a mating ritual,” Clint adds. “It’s just weird when I have to explain to him that whatever you described isn’t a mating ritual. It’s even weirder when I have to convince him that yes, there are people who actually do that and yes, they enjoy it.”

Toni snorts. “People totally do that stuff on Asgard.”

“I’m with Toni on this one,” Natasha says. “It’s not her fault he was sheltered.”

“I am not one to judge others by their pleasures,” Thor speaks up suddenly, “but indeed, it should seem strange that anyone should partake in those actions described to me.”

“Thor, buddy, you are missing out,” Toni assures him. “You might wanna try some of those when Jane comes back from New Mexico; she seems like she’s a little kinkster.”

“You would do well, Iron Man, to say nothing of my lady Jane and what sexual pleasures she chooses to enjoy.”

“Is this because I was looking at her ass the other day? I’m an ass kinda girl, you know.”

“Toni, stop objectifying people,” Stephanie commands.

“I love objectifying bitches.”

“Toni, shut up!” nearly everyone in the van shouts.

Toni mutters something about occupying her mouth with something else. She leans in the back, opens the cooler, and starts shuffling things around.

“Where’s my booze?”

“I told you no alcohol,” Stephanie answers. “SHIELD doesn’t want us drinking publicly outside of places with liquor licenses.”

“And you decided to bring nothing to drink but Juicy Juice?”

“There wasn’t enough room for the soda.” This is a lie; Stephanie just wants to see the Natashas with juice boxes. They’re the deadliest people she knows, and the resulting facebook photos will be Stephanie’s next prank. Clint told her something about a “meme”, then proceeded to explain how he’s “a wizard” with a program called Photoshop. He claimed that it manipulates pictures, which is supposed to be hilarious. She trusts him with the details.

Stephanie turns around to watch Toni pull out a grape juice box.

“Stephanie, you suck.”

“You could use the vitamin C. You don’t eat enough; you’re going to get scurvy.”

Bruce laughs. “Only you would worry about a billionaire getting scurvy, Stephanie Chen.”

“I think ‘twould be best if someone were to monitor Natasha Antonia’s eating habits. One fights better on a fuller stomach,” Thor says, sounding surprisingly pensive.

“Okay, you’re so not my favorite anymore,” Toni tells him. “Natalia, you’re up to bat. Don’t disappoint me.”

“Like I care what you think,” Natasha says from the front seat.

“But Nat, you love me!”

“Don’t call me Nat.”

Toni sulks all the way to the beach. She sips her grape juice, and Clint takes more pictures than is probably healthy.

 

At the beach, Bruce and Natasha are reading books on their towels. Clint and Thor are seeing who can swim farther (though why anyone thinks it’s a contest, Steph isn’t sure). Stephanie’s planning to sketch later on, but for now she has a bucket to put stones in while she walks down the shoreline. She sees Toni playing beach volleyball with a bunch of strangers.

After a couple of interesting rocks, Stephanie decides to focus on seashells. She likes the ocean; it’s easy to draw, and the sounds are calming (or would be if the beach weren’t so crowded). She turns around when Bruce Hulks out. All the Avengers stop what they’re doing to deal with what Clint calls “Bruce’s tantrum”.

When Steph gets there, Toni is trying to convince the Hulk to make a sand castle.

“Here, use Cap’s bucket. She won’t mind, honest.”

Stephanie nods. “I even have rocks and seashells to decorate it with.”

This seems to keep the Hulk from getting agitated, and while Steph builds a sandcastle with him (how do you make a Hulk careful and patient?) everyone else goes back to what they were doing. The ‘other guy’ gets the hang of it, and Stephanie leaves him alone. She lies down on her towel, between Natasha’s and Toni’s, and starts to sketch.

She draws Toni first, her face all sunglasses and leering. But then Stephanie draws her short hair pulled back in a ponytail, her sharp shoulders that lead to too-thin arms and a long, delicate fingers that rest on wide hips.

“How long has Toni’s hair been short?” Stephanie asks. “She always uses extensions in photoshoots.”

“It was shorter when she came back from Afghanistan, but she’s been growing it out,” Natalia explains.

“Was it long, before...” Stephanie isn’t quite sure what euphemism would apply to being kidnapped by terrorists.

“It hasn’t been really long since her twenties, but she would keep it around her shoulders. She said she wanted to seem more business-like.”

“And you know this because you wrote her file for SHIELD.”

“I did a very thorough investigation, and I asked Pepper many of the same questions you’re asking me. I also got information that wasn’t solicited but was very useful in my assessment of Antonia.” Natasha licks her forefinger and turns the page. She refused to switch over to a StarkReader, though Toni offered the whole team a few. (Except Thor, who is under no circumstances allowed near any of Toni’s technology.)

“Did all of that information end up in Toni’s file?” Stephanie asks.

“No. While I definitely used it to make judgements, a lot of that information was private and none of SHIELD’s business.”

“Good.” Stephanie’s drawing Toni’s feet now. Feet are always the hardest part; they’re all so different from each other and have so much detail. Feet just don’t look right on paper. They hardly look right in real life. Stephanie ends up erasing them three times before she’s satisfied.

 

**Toni**

Bruce is scanning her. At this point, his lab is outfitted with more medical equipment than her own, and he’s been briefed up and down about palladium and its effects on the human body. Toni is far from dying, but she’s also far from healthy, at least by Bruce’s standards. By her own standards, she’s seen worse. The lithium dioxide keeps the symptoms at bay, and every three months, Toni gets a little more palladium out of her system. The process involves a two-day diet of nothing but fruits beforehand and afterward, blood transfusions, and this weird nano-magnet that she and Bruce developed together. It makes her whole body ache, and it irritates her heart, but she wishes she could get it all over with. The palladium has wrecked her body enough; she wants that chapter of her life over with. Toni’s glad she’d rediscovered badassium when she had.

She hates doctors, with the exception of Bruce, but she’s still wary about having him be in control of her health. It isn’t so much that she doesn’t trust him as it is that it’s her body and she should be the one in charge of everything, even data. But she doesn’t have any sort of bio degree, and Bruce does. He isn’t a medical doctor, but as long as Toni sees him, Pepper doesn’t bug her to get to a hospital every other month.

“What I wouldn’t give for some of Cap’s blood,” Bruce mutters.

“Why can’t we use it?” Toni asks.

“You’re  not the same blood type, for starters. On top of that, we’re not sure what the effects of the serum might be on other people’s bodies. It could be very good or very bad or the cells just might die. I went over this when we started, don’t you remember?”

“I was probably thinking about new updates for the suit. The newest version was almost finished that week.”

Bruce sighs. “This is the reason I’m in charge and not you. Now lie still.”

Toni groans as Bruce pulls out the needle to the bag of palladium that was just drained from Toni’s veins. In her other arm, he inserts a needle attached to a bag of donated blood. She’ll be here for another hour at least. She really hates doctors.

 

“Antonia, my friend, spar with me today, for the day is bright and if there were songbirds in this fair city, their lungs would burst from the greatest song never heard!”

Toni can hear Thor through her wall. This needs to be rectified, but she is unwilling to get out of bed. She tucks her head under her pillow and tries to get back to sleep. She needs to sleep off her treatment. Thor bursts into the room anyway.

“Antonia, you must rise to spar with me.”

“Today is not a day for doing anything.” Her voice is muffled a bit, but she won’t repeat herself.

“Have you been visited by Freyja in the night, my friend? I shall let you rest while your womb refreshes itself.”

“Get out of my room!” Toni screams.

Oh, god, he’s probably  going up to the common floor to ask someone else to spar. Then he’ll tell everyone it’s my time of the month. Fucking Asgardians. She’s half-rabid as she makes her way up to the common floor. There’s already a pot of coffee going. She heads straight for it.

“No, Thor, Toni is not on her period,” she hears Natasha say from the living room.

Toni frowns. Of course Natasha would know that. Toni really needs to have a word with Pepper about what information does and doesn’t get told to SHIELD spies.

Steph walks into the kitchen. She looks surprised to see Toni there.

“I heard you were under the weather.”

“I’m not on my period.”

“Nat said so. But you’re sick, right?”

“Something like that,” Toni mutters.

“I can bring you food and stuff, if you want. You can just stay on your floor and relax.” She smiles, and Toni can see why half of America fell in love with her.

“No, it’s fine. Bruce said I’m only supposed to eat fruit. It’s easier to digest or something. I have all the strawberries I need.”

“Do you want company?”

Toni’s first instinct is to say no. She hates people seeing her weak, and she hates seeming dependent on others (with the possible exception of Pepper). She says yes because for once, she doesn’t want to go in the lab, and she hates the idea of being alone all day doing nothing.

“Yeah. Let’s pick out some John Hughes films. You’re doing the 80s, right?”

“Yup.”

 

Stephanie actually makes a really nice fruit salad, but it loses its appeal when she suggests that they have it for dinner as well as lunch.

“I want steeeeaaaakkkk,” Toni moaned.

“That would be nice, but you can’t have it.”

Toni manages to bargain up to some vegetables, at least, but that turns into veggie burgers and fries.

“I will love you forever for this,” she assures Stephanie.

That promise is promptly forgotten the following Tuesday when they’re fighting Doombots.

“You’re an idiot for not listening to me,” Toni snaps over the comm. “You are so far from understanding robots, they might as well have been invented 34 years after you were born. Oh, wait, they were,” she hisses. “Stop trying to tell me the best way to defeat these fuckers. I know what I’m doing far better than you.”

“Toni, I am trying to make this a cohesive operation! We’re a team, not a bunch of fighting dogs. We need to watch out for each other, and that means going where I tell you.”

“Fuck off!”

Toni doesn’t exactly save the day. Hawkeye spots Dr. Doom’s control device, Natasha takes care of “security” while Thor takes it out. Stephanie, Toni, and the Hulk are left destroying the remaining Doombots, and Toni can barely salvage any tech to combat it all later.

She fumes in her workshop, reverse-engineering some shitty mad scientist’s work – god, why doesn’t he just steal my tech already? It would be so much more interesting – and trying to forget how patronized she felt earlier.

Fucking Rogers.

When they spar the next day, she actually beats Steph. Stephanie has a genuine smile on her face when she congratulates Toni. Apparently Captain Perfect doesn’t hold grudges very well. (Toni takes the time to imagine what it would take to make Stephanie Chen hold a grudge. You’d probably have to set a puppy on fire while lecturing on how to be an anti-Semite or something.)

“I just want pancakes,” Toni tells her.

“Maybe Clint will make us some. He loves cooking. And baking.”

“I don’t want to eat something he made. He said the secret ingredient to his cookies was hate.”

Stephanie looks scandalized. “But I love those cookies! I can’t believe I’ve been ingesting hatred!”

Toni’s about to calm Captain America down when she sees the glint in those brown eyes. They laugh together and head up to the main kitchen. Toni doesn’t cook very much, but she’ll make an exception for pancakes and a good friend.

 


End file.
